Safari destination

Samburu National Reserve

Kenya's arid north: the Samburu Special Five, elephants and the Ewaso Ng'iro River.

Location

Samburu national reserve is situated at the Southern Corner of Samburu District in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is bordered to the south of Uaso Nyiro river, which separates it from the buffalo springs National Reserve.

Size

The reserve covers an area of 170 sq km. Distance from Nairobi 345 km to Archer’s gate (main entrance to Samburu National reserve).

Climate

Arid and semi arid with hot days and cool nights. Annual mean temperatures between 18 and 30 degrees Celsius. Annual mean rainfall is 345 mm with peaks in November and April.

Access

Road: The reserve can be accessed by road from Nairobi through Isiolo on all-weather bitumen while Isiolos archer’s post is gravelled.

Air: The reserve has an airstrip, the oryx Samburu Air strip.

Best time to visit

All year round.

Activities

There are various activities that visitors can engage in while at the reserve. These include; game drives, bird watching, sundowners, bush breakfast, nature walks, river rafting (depending on the water level) and the samburu cultural experience.

Wildlife

Rich in game, with many rare species including Grevy’s Zebra, Somali ostrich, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, beisa oryx (also referred to as the samburu special five), elephants(a minimum of 900), lion, (kamunyak the miracle lioness that adopted the baby oryx is a resident in the reserve), leopard, cheetah, wild dogs and over 450 species of birds recorded. Birds of the arid northern bush country are augmented by a number of riverine forest species. The lesser kestrel and the Taita falcon are species of global conservation concern both found in this reserve. Five species categorised as vulnerable have also been recorded here. These are the African darter, great egret, white headed vulture, martial eagle and the yellow billed ox-pecker. The critically endangered pancake tortoise (malacochersus tornieri) is also found here.

Day-by-day safaris